India’s annual food inflation fell to 12.85% for the week ended Oct 23 from 13.75% in the previous week, providing some relief to consumers during the festive season. Official data released Thursday showed the annual inflation rate for the primary articles group eased to 15.43% during the week under review from 16.62% recorded in the week ended Oct 16. The index for fuels also dipped to 10.67% for the week from 11.25% in the previous week. The barometer for food prices had been on the downtrend since the past few weeks. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has centred its monetary policy to combating high inflation, hiked interest rates by 25 basis points Tuesday. While the repo rate was raised to 6.25% from 6%, the reverse repurchase rate was hiked to 5.25% from 5% in the sixth such interest rate tweak this year. The Central Bank, however, ruled out any more rate hikes at least in the next 3 months. Following are the rise and fall in prices of some of the main commodities that form the sub-index for food articles over the past 52 weeks: Cereals: 4.07% Rice: 3.17% Wheat: 4.36% Pulses: 0.67% Vegetables: (-) 4.2% Fruits: 16.03% Milk: 21.72% Potatoes: (-) 51.22% Onions: (-) 0.13%